Family Politics in Nineteenth Century Thailand

One of the most arresting periods in modern Thai history is the latter half of the nineteenth century, when a process of social and political development begun in the previous century reached its fruition when a single bureaucratic family obtained a virtual mono poly on high state office in the reign of King Mongkut (1851-68) and the first half of the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910). This situation had profound effects on the course of modern Thai history; and its study enlightens our understanding of Thailand's foreign relations and of the course of reform and modernization in a period when the successful conduct of these was crucially vital to the survival of the kingdom. The origins and growth of one-family dominance in nineteenth century Thai politics are not readily susceptible to study. Family names are essentially a twentieth century innovation, and nineteenth century documents rarely reveal even the personal names of govern ment officials who were known only by their titles. However, it is obvious both from the comments of such foreign observers as Captain Henry Burney and Sir John Bowring, and from the expressed con cerns of Thai kings from Rama III to Chulalongkorn, that family relationships among the royalty and nobility were of considerable importance political. The availability of three general types of sources makes possible a preliminary analysis of nineteenth century Thai politics and the family relationships which undergirded them. First, there are a number of genealogical compilations, most of which were compiled early in the current century. Important among these are a collection of genealogies of major noble families begun by Phraya Rattanakun (Camrat Rattanakun) in 1920/ the official genealogy of the royal family,2 and the genealogies of the families of